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Text File | 1989-04-06 | 26.1 KB | 494 lines

If QTERM is invoked with no arguments, it starts up, and after signing on, you are immediately connected with the modem. If an argument file is provided, then it is assumed to be a chat script (see 'X'), and the chat script is immediately activated. With this file as with all others that can be entered, user numbers can be included in the filespecification: B3:CHAT.XYZ will look for the file in user area 3 on drive B: Either the drive or the user alone can be given: A:FOO.FOO and 7:BAZ.BAR are both acceptable, anything not given defaults to the current values. On completion of the chat script, command passes to normal connected operation. All special actions are initiated by typing the escape character, what happens next is determined by the next character typed. Note that while all letters here are shown in upper case, lower case works equally well: so <escape> b also activates the code to set the baud rate. As delivered, the escape character is set to control backslash, however it can be changed by patching QTERM: see QTERM.PAT for details, so to print help type '^\' '?', etc. In all the descriptions that follow, references to the escape character refer to this (i.e. '^\' and not the ESC key - '^[') Retyping the escape character (i.e. typing it twice) sends a single copy of the escape character to the remote system. Other characters and what they do are: ? - Print help - QTERM provides a brief synopsis of the available commands. . - Send a break - If QTERM has been patched to do it, this will transmit a tenth of a second break. , - Hang up modem - This is done by deactivating DTR for a short time, which causes most modems to hang up. Again QTERM has to be patched to do this. Alternatively, if your modem doesn't respond to DTR, it is possible to have QTERM transmit a string to cause a hangup: for example the '<delay> +++ <delay> ATH0' as required by a HAYES compatible modem. B - Change baud rate and mode - This will first prompt you, your response must look like the following: nnnn nnnn mmm -x y z * mmm where 'nnnn' is a number specifying the baud rate. Up to eight options are available: 300 600 1200 2400 4800 9600 19200 and 38400, although not all of these may be enabled. 'mmm' is a byte format specifier made up of three characters. The first must be '7 ' or '8' to specify the number of data bits; the second 'E', 'O', or 'N' for even, odd, or no parity; and the third '1' or '2' for the number of stop bits. The * in the last example is used as a place holder when the mode is to be changed, but not the baud rate. So, for example: '1200' would change to 1200 baud leaving the mode as is; '300 8n1' would switch to 300 baud, and select 8 data bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit; and '* 7E2' would change the format to 7 data bits, even parity, and 2 stop bits, while leaving the baud rate alone. The '-' option is a way of specifying three delays that can be set. The first is a delay in seconds after a control S is sent. QTERM uses ^S / ^Q as flow control, to turn off transmission at the remote end while it is writing to disk or the printer (see 'C' catch and 'O' printer output). Since some systems take longer to respond to a ^S than others, the delay time can be changed. QTERM starts up with one second of delay, but by specifying -3 or -6 or whatever, this delay can be changed. -0 is possible, but not recommended unless your remote system responds instantly. The second number is a delay in milliseconds between character sends in 'P' transmits (see below). Note that this time is the time between the start of each character transmission, rather than a time between the end of one and the start of the next. So if this delay was set to 15 milliseconds at 1200 BPS, where each character takes about 8 milliseconds to transmit, there would be 8 milliseconds spent sending the character, and then 7 milliseconds of idle time: the total being 15. The third number is the delay at the end of a line in 'P' transmission: this is also a count of milliseconds, and this delay occurs after transmission of a carriage return. Note that it is possible to selectively set these values: if a '*' is entered as a place holder then the delay value for that position will not be changed, i.e. -* 20 would leave the ^S delay alone, set the character delay to 20 milliseconds, and leave the end of line delay alone. Note that while the 'nnn' option for setting the communication mode requires a place holder, the -x option is detected by the '-'. Hence no place holder is needed, but the -x must be the last thing on the line. So: 300 -2 * 200 * 7o2 -1 15 -4 20 300 are all acceptible commands, but: 2400 -2 8n1 will set the baud rate to 2400, the ^S delay to 2 seconds, but will not change the communication mode. Instead it would do undefined things to the character and end of line delays. Although QTERM always claims to have made the changes to the baud rate and communication mode, they will only happen if the necessary patches are applied. Note that for the second character of the mode specifier, both lower and upper case are accepted. C - Open an input catch file - This prompts for a filename, and then opens that file for output. All subsequent data received up the line from the modem port will be written to the file. Y - Put catch file on hold - This keeps the output file open, but temporarily disables transfer of data. A second <escape> 'Y' will re-enable capture of data. Z - Close a catch file - This closes the output file, and disables data capture until another catch file is opened. D - Display local directory - This prompts for a single CP/M wildcard file specificier, and then lists all files that match. Note that an empty filename is assumed to be '*.*'. This option will only work with CP/M 2.2 and compatible systems: it is disabled under CP/M 3.0. When the files are being printed, QTERM will stop after each screenful (23 lines), hitting return will print a single line, any other key will print a full page. E - Toggle remote echo - This toggles echo to the remote system. This will most likely be used when the remote system is a terminal or another computer running a terminal program. It causes all characters received from the modem to be re-transmitted back to the modem, creating the impression that the far end is running in half duplex mode. Caution should be used to make sure that you don't set up an 'infinite loop' where the remote system is also echoing: because then the first character that returns will be sent out again by QTERM, to be returned by the remote, to be sent out again by QTERM ..... H - Toggle half duplex - This simply causes all keyboard input to be echoed to the screen. I - Print status Information - This prints a summary of QTERM's current state, showing the state of the various toggles, delays, what the current drive and user are, etc. J - Junk control characters - This causes QTERM to discard all control characters received from the remote system that are not considered important. Important control characters are: carriage return (0x0d); linefeed (0x0a); backspace (0x08); tab (0x09); and escape (0x1b). In this mode, if the remote system is sending characters with the MSB set, and bit 7 masking is not enabled (see 'M'), then all characters with bit 7 set will also be discarded. L - Toggle linefeed transmit for 'P' - When 'P' is used to send a file to the remote system, it normally transmits all useful characters: i.e. all printable ascii characters from ' ' to '~', tabs, and carriage returns. This toggle ensables the transmission of line feeds, for cases where it is needed. Note that when QTERM starts, this is off, i.e. the default is not to transmit linefeeds. M - Toggle bit 7 mask - When this is enabled, all characters received from the remote have the most significant bit stripped. This may be useful when QTERM is running in 8n1 mode, but the remote is transmitting in 7e1 mode - the top bit will contain parity, and this strips it off. N - New default drive and user. This will prompt, and allow entry of a drive user specification (i.e 'A7:' or 'B14:' or 'C:' or '9:'), this then becomes the default for all file operations. Note that it is possible to user the CP/M BDOS functions to set drive and user during the entry hook code (see QTERM.PAT), so if the entry code selects D2:, and all scripts are on D2: just entering QTERM SCRIPT at the CCP prompt would find SCRIPT on D2:. Also note that after the entry hook code, QTERM makes a note of where it is (i.e. in the above case D2: ) When a chat script is invoked with the 'X' command, QTERM will first look at the drive given, or on the default if no drive is specified. If that fails, then QTERM will take a second look in the drive/user area as saved after the entry hook. The rationale behind this is to place all chat scripts in one place: these can subsequently move the default around (see the '!' section of chat scripts), or 'N' commands can be used to move around. However it does not matter what the current default drive/user is, QTERM can always find the scripts by lookng back at the area it noted. O - Toggle output to the printer - This simply toggles a switch that causes all data received to be transmitted to the printer. P - Print a file to remote - This prompts for a filename, and then transmits that file to the remote system. While this transfer is in progress, the keyboard is ignored, except that typing control 'X' will cancel the transfer. Note that the 'L' command may come in useful with this command, check how your remote system behaves. T - Type a local file - This also prompts for a filename, and then prints that file to the screen locally. While this is in progress, a control 'X' will cancel it, Output can also be paused by typing control 'S', which will halt until another character is typed. If this character is control 'X' the output will be aborted, any other continues the printout. V - Toggle VT100 emulation. This function requires the following screen abilities be specified before it will work (see QTERM.PAT for details): clear to end of line, and clear to end of screen. Note that the VT100 emulation is as complete as it can be, however the alternate character sets and display attribute commands will not be recognised. W - Toggle split window mode. This requires that the insert line and delete line screen abilities be specified (see QTERM.PAT for details). It puts QTERM into a mode where send and receive text are shown in two separate windows. This can be useful when using QTERM to communicate with another communication program running in terminal mode, because it keeps what is typed on the keyboard separate from what is received from the remote system. After selecting window mode, QTERM prompts for window size: there are two options, 'b' or 's' (big or small). This refers to the receive window: when small, the screen is split exactly in half: 11 lines for both send and receive. Big mode makes the receive window 18 lines deep, the send window is only 4 lines: this will be useful when far more text is being received than is being sent. R - Receive a file using protocol - This option prompts for a mode and optional receive file information. Xmodem and Kermit are both supported. Respond with 'k' to go into Kermit receive, or 'x' to go into Xmodem receive. Normally files are received on the current default drive, however by entering a drive or a user (e.g. 'k b7:') files will be received in the specified location. In addition, if Xmodem is not being used in batch mode, a filename can be given here. Non-batch Xmodem has a default filename, this can be used to override it. Note that a space MUST be present between the k or the x and the filename / drive specification for proper operation. Normally QTERM is silent, however if an 'a' option is given immediately after the 'x' or 'k' (as in 'ka c4:') QTERM will alert on termination of transfer by ringing the terminal bell. While the transfer is in progress, a control 'X' will abort it. S - Send a file using protocol - This also prompts, the response should be 'k filelist ....' or 'x filelist ....' where 'filelist ....' is a list of CP/M filespecifiers: wildcards are permitted. Single filespecifiers are separated from one another by spaces, and there must be a space before the first filespecifier. There are options that can be given immediately following the k / x. For Kermit, the only option available is a 'b' that forces binary mode. Kermit usually sends files in text mode (i.e. 0x1a is taken as end of file) - If you want to transfer a binary file, specify the mode as 'kb filename.com'. Xmodem has the following options: 'b' - use Xmodem batch (AKA Modem7 batch mode); 'y' - use Ymodem batch mode; 'k' - use 1K packets. So 'xbk a12:*.com' would send all .COM files on drive A:, user area 12, using Modem7 batch mode and 1K packets. To match names to various combinations: xyk will give true Ymodem (known sometimes as ymodem batch), xk gives Xmodem 1K (sometimes incorrectly called ymodem), xy gives Ymodem batch, but forces 128 byte packets, xbk will use Modem7 batch mode, but with 1K packets. Note that the Kermit implementation can attempt to use both hi bit quoting and repeat character packing for sending, these are enabled by adding a 'p' to the kermit options for pack, and a 'h' for high bit quoting. As with protocol reception, this procedes in silence, however if an 'a' option (i.e. 'xkya 4:*.txt') is given, QTERM will ring the bell on completion; in addition, a control 'X' will abort the transfer. K - Program a function key - This prompts for a key number and a string to be loaded under that key. The first character entered may be an 's' to specify the string should be sent slowly. Normally function key strings are transmitted at full speed, however the 's' creates a tenth second delay between characters. Following the 's' (if given) or as the first character if no 's' is given, must be a digit between '0' and '9': this specifies the key number. Finally comes the string that will be loaded under the key. Maximum string length is 14 characters, longer strings are truncated. Backslash escape sequences are permitted, see the description in the section on chat scripts for a full explanation of what is available. As a few examples: s2hello\r would program function key 2 to send 'hello <cr>' slowly, and: 3userid = 17\e would program function key 3 to send 'userid = 17 <esc>' at full speed. (\r is an escape sequence that maps to a single carriage return, and \e maps to a single escape. See chat scripts below for more detail) 0-9 - Send function key string - After <escape> 'K' has been used to load strings into the function keys, <escape> '0' etc. will activate the function key, causing the string it contains to be sent. X - Activate a chat script - This prompts for a filename, then it reads the file, and does the chat script given. A chat script is a means for getting QTERM to automatically call up a remote system, log in to it, and do whatever else in wanted. A line in a chat script contains six fields: an example of such a line is: .AT\r.OK\r\n.3.2.3.0. In this example the '.' (first character) is the delimiter used to separate fields. Any character can be used, but whatever character is chosen cannot appear in the strings. Also note that chosing a delimiter from the characters above 'z' in the ASCII character set (i.e. '{', '|', '}', and '~') has a special effect, which is explained below. Taking the fields in order they are SEND, EXPECT, TIME, TRIES, SUCCESS, and FAIL. SEND is a string that is transmitted by QTERM, so in the example above QTERM would transmit 'AT<carriage return>'. Since the file must be printable ascii, special escape sequences are provided to allow arbitrary characters in. All of these escape sequences start with a backslash '\', and the following are provided: '\r' carriage return (0x0d), '\n' linefeed (0x0a), '\t' tab (0x09) '\b' backspace (0x08), '\e' escape (0x1b), '\k' break, and '\d' delay. '\k' causes a break to be sent, and '\d' causes a delay of two seconds in the transmission. In addition a backslash can be followed by up to three octal digits to send the character with that representation: so '\177' would send a delete, and '\003' or '\3' would send a control C; this can also be done for hexadecimal representations: in this case '\x' is the leadin, and it is followed by up to two hexadecimal digits: so '\x7f' would again send a delete, and '\xd' could be used in place of '\r' to send a carriage return. The rule for determining how many characters are used when scanning an octal or hex number is as follows: octal has a maximum of three, hex a maximum of two: use at most that many characters, or stop early if an inappropriate character is encountered. As was noted above, delimiters above 'z' have a special effect: they cause the SEND string to be written out slowly: there is a tenth of a second delay after each character. EXPECT is a string that QTERM is looking for in response to it's SEND string: so in the above example, QTERM would be looking for the 'OK<carriage return><linefeed>' that a Hayes compatible modem would respond with, when presented with the 'AT<return>' that QTERM sent. The remining four fields are all decimal numbers, and can be omitted as QTERM will provide default values. TIME is the number of seconds to wait before assuming failure, if not given it defaults to 15. TRIES is the number of times to retry on failure, so taking our first example, TRIES is 2. If it matched the EXPECT string on the first sending of SEND, all is well, but on the first failure it would resend the SEND string and look for the EXPECT string a second time. If it failed on this second attempt, only then would it consider this line to have failed. SUCCESS specifies the line number to transfer to in the chat script if it matched the EXPECT string. The default for this is the line following the current line. FAIL is the line to transfer to if the EXPECT string is not matched. This can be a line in the chat script, or as shown above 0 is allowed, which terminates the script immediately. In another example, if the first line were: .AT\r.OK\r\n..5. Since TIME is empty, it defaults to 15, but as TRIES is 5, this line would try five times before giving up. Note also from the second example that there are two ways of causing QTERM to default a value: an empty field (TIME) or end of the string (SUCCESS and FAIL). Note however that the closing '.' after the 5 for TRIES is necessary. It is possible that either of SEND or EXPECT can be empty: an empty SEND causes nothing to be sent, but the EXPECT must be matched to continue; an empty EXPECT automatically matches. Note that if both are empty then the chat script will terminate when it hits that line. There is another special cases for the "delimiter": '!'. This allows other <escape> commands to be executed in the middle of a chat script. Following the '!' must be the letter of the command to be executed, and following this must be any input that would normally be prompted for. Hence: '!b1200 8n1' would cause the baud rate to be set to 1200, and the communications mode to 8 data bits, no parity, and one stop bit; likewise: '!.' would send a break. Note that there should be no space between the '!' and the command letter, although spaces after are permitted. Not all commands are available: ',', '.' (hangup and break), 'B' (set baud rate), 'E' (set local echo), 'H' (set half duplex), 'J' (toggle junking control characters), 'L' (set linefeed send for 'P'), 'M' (set bit 7 mask), 'N' (select new drive/user), 'V' (toggle VT100 emulation), 'W' (toggle split window mode), 'K' (program function key), 'P' (print file to remote), 'R' (receive), 'S' (send) and 'X' (activate chat script) are the only commands available. Note also that the toggles ('E', 'H', 'J', 'L', 'M', 'V' and 'W') behave a little differently. Since the state of these toggles is not defined when a chat script starts, there are three ways of invoking these. Using 'H' (half duplex) as an example: '!h' behaves as would an <escape> 'H' in normal operation, i.e. it toggles the half duplex switch. However, if the following is given: '!h1' the trailing '1' forces half duplex to be enabled, irrespective of it's original state, and: '!h0' guarantees to turn half duplex off. The other toggles work in the same manner: a trailing '0' always disables, and a trailing '1' always enables. The 'X' command to activate a chat script can be used to chain scripts together: when an 'X' is encountered the specified chat script is invoked, however the current script is lost: it is overwritten by the new one. There are two other command that are not normally available: 'A', and 'F'. 'A' simply alerts it's passing by ringing the terminal bell, this may be useful if a chat script is being used to repeatedly call a number until a connection is made: by putting a '!a' into the script, the system will beep when a connection is made. Since 'C' catch files are disabled during chat script operation, 'F' is provided as an alternative means for data capture. A typical 'F' line would be: '!fb:catch.txt 6 string' This would open B:CATCH.TXT for output, then send 'string' out, and transfer all subsequent data to that file until a timeout of 6 seconds occurred. 'string' is a string that can contain backslash escape sequences, just like a SEND string in normal chat operation. Any timeout can be given, up to about 250 seconds. Note that since this uses the same buffer as the <escape> C command, if there is already a catch file open, it will be automatically closed prior to execution of a '!f'. Finally, if you wish to terminate a chat script prematurely, typing control 'X' will do so, and return to normal operation. Q - Quit - This terminates QTERM, returning to CP/M. Note that the modem is not hung up, unless the exit code explicitly does so, or an <escape> ',' sequence is used before terminating QTERM. To finish - here is an example of a chat script, with a 'blow by blow' account of every line. !b1200 8n1 -2 25 500 [1] !k0C;CP/M\r [2] !k1C;POST\r [2] .AT\r.OK\r\n..5. [3] .ATDT1234567\r.CONNECT 1200.30. [4] ..inue: . [5] .\r.\r\n. [6] .\013.name: . [7] |david goodenough\r|word: | [7] |XXXXXXXX\r|| [7] [1] - set the baud rate for 1200, and 8n1 as the communications mode, set for 2 seconds delay to respond to ^S, set for 25 milliseconds delay between character sends during <escape> P and set for 500 milliseconds of delay at the end of each line in <escape> P [2] - load function key 0 with 'C;CP/M <return>', and function key 1 with 'C;POST <return>' - these are a couple of commands that I use a lot on the BBS associated with this chat script. [3] - send 'AT<return>' to the modem, and look for the 'OK<return><linefeed>' response. This line is tried five times before giving up. [4] - dial the number, and wait for the 'CONNECT 1200' response. Note here that the timeout is thirty seconds, to give the modem time to dial, make the connection, and establish carrier with the other modem. [5] - send nothing, but wait for 'inue: '. This is part of a string typed by the BBS: 'Hit any key to continue: ' - here we are just looking for the last six characters. Note that all four numeric fields default here, so wait 15 seconds, only try it once, success goes to the next line, and failure exits, [6] - send a <return>, and wait for a <return> <linefeed>. [7] - send a control K ('\013'), and wait for 'name: '; then send my name, and wait for 'word: ' (part of the password prompt); finally send my password, and expect nothing - we're all done. Note also the '|' delimiter, the system can't take the name and password at full speed, so they are sent slowly. To provide a second example, a local BBS has two possible numbers to call it on. The following script will try the first, if that fails then try the second .AT\r.OK\r\n..5. [1] .ATDT7654321\r.CONNECT 1200.30..5.3. [2] .AT\r.OK\r\n..5. [3] .ATDT7651234\r.CONNECT 1200.30. [4] %\r%inue....% [5] . .FIRST name? . [6] .david\r.LAST name? . [6] [1] - Get the modem's attention: send AT <return> till the modem responds. [2] - Try the first number. If we succeed go to line 5, on a fail go to line 3 which is the next line. [3] - Resync with the modem. [4] - Try the second number. If we succeed, carry on, otherwise fail. Effectively failure only occurs if both numbers don't work. [5] - Start the login process, this line shows also how any delimiter can be used: since '.' is part of the expect string there is another character in use for the delimiter. [6] - Continue logging in. By expanding the process above, it is possible to cause the modem to test many numbers, and by suitably adjusting the failure value of the last line where a number is dialed it is possible to make the script try several numbers in a loop test pattern indefinitely till one of them succeeds.